Chapter 2: A School Defeated
At the end of the carefree afternoon the boys take the fairies back to Alfea before going back to Red Fountain. They are immediately discouraged, though, when they see a grumbling Griselda by the school gates.
"At last you're here!" she exclaims in place of a greeting. "I hope you had fun because the director is waiting for you. She wants to talk about a really important issue."
Griselda turns around and walks into the school, the fairies following him. They head for the director's office, but only the members of the Winx enter the room. Faragonda is sitting behind her table, watching the fairies above her fingers which are put together like a tent. When the door closes behind Layla, she stands up.
"I'm sorry for summoning you at this hour but I didn't have any other choice. The situation is troubling, so I had to wait for Alfea's best team–"
"You mean you have a task for us and we can skip classes?" Stella asks, eyes sparkling.
"I mean I have a task for you and you can finish it in one night. You won't need to skip any of your classes tomorrow."
Faragonda's voice sounds so worried, Bloom gets goose bumps hearing it.
"Miss, you are frightening us. What happened?"
"The Cloud Tower has been attacked."
The short response shocks the girls. They are at a loss for words for a while. Finally, Techna breaks the silence:
"Attacked by who? And why?"
"I don't know that, either. The message arrived this afternoon. It was brought by a pixie, still treated for exhaustion. You are to go to the Cloud Tower and–"
"You can count on us," Bloom declares. "We won't let the Cloud Tower to be defeated."
When the fairies rush out of the room, Faragonda sits back to her table. She puts her fingers together again, takes a deep breath, murmuring to herself:
"Just don't get too disappointed…"
Flying, the Winx get to the Cloud Tower soon. Though they are still quite far away, one thing, that really should be here, is obviously missing. They turn their heads from one side to the other, searching for it in vain. Where are the attackers?
"Oh, my!" Flora exclaims. "Could we be late?"
The gates of the school are wide open, making the lack of attackers even more troubling. The disastrous state of all the other parts of the building seems to prove Flora as well. Several of its towers have collapsed. The walls are full of huge holes, indicating powerful impacts. The school and the surrounding grounds seem totally deserted.
"No one's here," Techna says. "Maybe we should go back to Alfea and report to Miss Faragonda that we arrived too late–"
"No way!" Stella objects. "I hate nothing more than to be sent somewhere I'm not needed. And I'm not in the mood to sit and listen to those boring classes tomorrow. So let's hang around a little and we can say that we got home late at night and are tired."
"I agree with you partially," Bloom says. "We're staying–"
"Yes! I knew you'll understand me."
"But we aren't staying only to get back late at night. There's got to be someone in the school, so we're going to look around. And then, we can go back."
Entering the gates, they get to a dark corridor. There are small piles of rubble all along the sides, piling at the bases of the walls. Stella leads the way, her light-emitting staff in her hands. Darkness flees from them first, only to return and follow them from behind. They can see almost nothing outside the range of the light Stella is holding. If there was someone else here… They would offer a perfect target for him.
They look into every room they come across, but only to find even more proof of the destruction the Cloud Tower has suffered. The school's inhabitants are gone, teachers and students alike. They are almost at the point to turn back when Flora opens a last door. At the same moment a curse flies out of the room beyond, hits the wall on the other side of the corridor and increases the size of the pile of rubble.
"Don't! Stop it!" Stella exclaims. "We are here to help!"
The outlines of a witch can soon be made out through the cloud of dust, made by the impact of the curse. Her face shows fear and exhaustion, her short red hair looks matted. She's looking at the fairies like she couldn't believe her own green eyes.
"Mirta?" Bloom recognizes her after looking over her.
"You… You're really here?" Mirta whispers in faint voice before collapsing to the floor.
Frightened, the fairies surround her. She looks like she's in really bad shape. Apart from exhaustion, her body is full of scars and bruises. The fairies don't understand how she could stay conscious for so long.
"What happened here?" Bloom tries to ask gently. "This place looks like it was bombarded with catapults."
"With what?" Stella asks.
"Catapults. They are siege machines that can throw huge boulders–"
"So that's what they were," Mirta whispers. "Giant rocks rained the walls all afternoon. Soldiers came, wearing armor and wielding shields… We couldn't… We couldn't cast any spells…"
"What?" the fairies ask at once, all with confusion.
"I suddenly felt like my powers have been stripped from me… And the others looked like the same as well…"
"Then what was this curse only a couple of minutes before?" asks Musa.
"Even I was surprised when it worked. So one of those women had to do something with that…"
"Women?" Layla asks. "What women are you talking about?"
"There were two women with the armored people. One of them led the soldiers into the school. They knocked everyone unconscious and took them, even our director. The other woman didn't move away from those machines."
The fairies look at each other. They are late. The Cloud Tower has fallen. Apart from Mirta, all withes were taken. And they don't have a clue where they were taken.
"Right," Layla says, stretching her arm toward Mirta. "You are coming with us."